International students in Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges in Western Australia: Students' reflections on their experience and perceptions of the future of associations between their country and Australia

Abstract

This report contains the results of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded collaborative project between Murdoch University and the International Division of TAFE WA. It provides a unique insight into international students' reflective accounts of their experience of studying at TAFE and living in Western Australia, and their attitudes towards educational exchange between their countries and Australia. The study was based on a model with two major assumptions - that for future educational association between Australia and their home countries students must return home satisfied with their TAFE experience; and that prospective students received their first source of information about TAFE from past students. The main aim of the study was to examine these assumptions and to obtain suggestions from past students for improving the conditions for TAFE international students. The results strongly supported both assumptions, and student responses were then used as the basis for a set of recommendations. As the survey was conducted in 1993, it is possible that some of the issues raised in the recommendations have subsequently been addressed by some of the colleges. Appendices include the preliminary results of the 1994 cohort